Pinch of salt

It stains, it stings, it's expensive--and it's everywhere

The crunch of each step. The white smudge on the Persian rug. That pallor that has overtaken once-colorful automobiles.

The blizzard may be gone, but the salt lingers.

Snow and low temperatures have had the region's streets on a high-sodium diet for most of February, and the salt is now everywhere, coating everything.

Pant legs and coats appear to have been attacked with chalk.

White marks on shoes look like the lines on topographical maps.

Dogs' feet are chapped, sore.

Millions of dollars of salt has been spread in the last few weeks. Thousands of tons of it. And rest assured, more is coming.

"You might get it on your shoes or your pant cuff, and you might brush up against it when you're leaving your car, but that's a small price to pay for saving your life," said Matt Smith, spokesman for the city's Department of Streets and Sanitation.

This week's storms prompted city trucks to dump salt along same routes as many as 80 times on Tuesday, officials said. The state alone spent $2.69 million on 67,232 tons of road salt to clear roads statewide from Monday to Thursday, officials said.

The city starts each winter with 390,000 tons of salt, with each "snow-fighting-truck" carrying about 10 tons, but it didn't have statistics on salt use during this storm.

Putting salt on the streets during a snowstorm allows ice to melt at below-freezing temperatures. It is effective and cheap--just $35 per ton.

For the coldest weather, trucks use a more powerful liquid, calcium chloride--at a pricey $400 a ton, said Mike Claffey, spokesman for the Illinois Department of Transportation.

The snowstorms this week required more salt than usual, said David Schulz, the director of the Infrastructure Technology Institute at Northwestern University. "Usually, salt goes out there and does its job--it melts, and it's gone," Schulz said. "In this case, there was snow followed immediately by cold, and then it snowed while it was cold. The salt is just sitting there."

Until someone--or something--steps in it.

"It's very frustrating when I see those big glops of salt--it's so pet unfriendly," said Marc Matlin, owner of Chicago Dog Walkers. But the salt can't be avoided.

It is being tracked into offices, into stores, into homes--and on to fancy carpets. Lazar Malko, the manager of Caspian Oriental Rugs, said a customer came in the store Monday with a salt-stained Tabriz Persian rug worth thousands of dollars.

Cars can suffer too. The manager of Gold Coast Hand Car Wash has had cars lining up to have the salt washed away.

The city recognizes how much salt the storm left behind, but maintained that it is the best option.

"Too much salt in your diet can be bad for you, but it's something we do need to have for public safety," Smith said. "With the winters we have in Chicago, it also has to be cost effective."

- - -

Postal officials say clear your sidewalks

Postal officials in Chicago are asking city and suburban residents to help keep the region's 3,000 mail carriers safe by clearing snow and ice from staircases, sidewalks and curbside mailboxes. Carriers have the right to curtail deliveries if they feel they cannot reach a mailbox safely, U.S. Postal Service officials said Thursday. Suburban customers who get curbside service should clear built-up snow left by plows, and city dwellers should clear ice and snow from walkways leading to mailboxes, officials said.